In 2024, the Cleveland Guardians made some clear win-now moves when they acquired Lane Thomas and Alex Cobb at the trade deadline.
With the team cruising toward an American League Central crown, the front office elected to dip into its prospect pool in those trades, as they sent LHP Alex Clemmey, SS Rafael Ramirez Jr. and INF José Tena to the Nationals for Thomas and LHP Jacob Bresnahan and INF Nate Furman to the Giants for Cobb.
While there was a lot of hand-wringing at the time for the trade of Clemmey (MLB Pipeline had him ranked as the team’s No.